Not to be outdone by Netflix, Amazon is also jumping into the original features game. Their first foray into that realm will be Chi-Raq, Spike Lee‘s contemporary retelling of the classical Greek play Lysistrata.

The company’s latest statement on the project reveals some new details, including a full cast list that includes Teyonah Parris, Angela Bassett, John Cusack, and Samuel L. Jackson. Get all the details on the Amazon Chi-Raq project after the jump. Read More »

Please Recommend /Film on Facebook

New details have emerged on Chiraq, Spike Lee‘s upcoming feature for Amazon Studios. As suggested by the title, it’ll be an examination of gun violence in Chicago. More surprisingly, it’ll also be a musical comedy based on an ancient Greek play. Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack are expected to star, and Kanye West may also be involved in some capacity.

Get all the latest info about the Spike Lee Chiraq movie after the jump. Read More »

Last year, Spike Lee decided to follow up his big studio remake of Oldboy with something very different. He turned to Kickstarter to raise money for Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, an idiosyncratic romance about bloodsuckers. (But don’t call them vampires.) Now the first trailer has arrived to show his fans just what they’ve paid for, and the results look pretty interesting. Check out the Da Sweet Blood of Jesus trailer after the jump. Read More »

Spike Lee‘s Oldboy was a big fat flop, but he could be bouncing back in no time. Even before that remake premiered, he was getting the pieces together for his next feature Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. Today, we have a first look at the indie horror romcom, which centers around people who are addicted to blood.

And though Da Sweet Blood of Jesus doesn’t yet have a theatrical release date, Lee also has a new project that you can watch right now. This one is The Game, a short film for Pepsi Max’s 2014 World Cup promotional campaign. See the Da Sweet Blood of Jesus image and watch The Game short after the jump.

She’s Gotta Have It introduced Spike Lee to the world in the mid-’80s, and will now be his latest project. Lee is remaking — or returning to — She’s Gotta Have It, in the form of a Showtime series. The filmmaker will write and direct a half-hour comedy show that “updates” the film, which followed a sexually liberated young woman as she juggled three suitors in Brooklyn. The other details we have on the She’s Gotta Have It TV series are below. Read More »

Look around the internet and you’ll see loads of hilarious bootleg DVD covers. They might mis-identify the stars or filmmakers, provide a terrible plot synopsis, use nonsensical review pull quotes, or feature visual elements which are completely unrelated to the film.

Still, this bootleg copy of Spike Lee‘s Oldboy may now be the king of great/awful bootleg cover design, as it uses a review pullquote that is honest, if not exactly a great piece of salesmanship. Read More »

Spike Lee’s Oldboy is a curiosity to be sure, a remake of a bizarre, twisted, gruesome Korean thriller. Most people thought Lee’s film was pretty terrible, and while I don’t have too many positive things to say about it, I did find it fascinating to compare the decisions that Lee made with those that Park Chan-wook made in his 2003 cult classic version of the story.

After the jump, you’ll find five reasons why I thought Lee’s version is inferior to Park Chan-Wook’s version. And please share your own opinions on the two films in the comments. Assume SPOILERS lie within the comments and the video. For more on the making of Oldboy, see Germain’s interview with Spike Lee and writer Mark Protosevich.Read More »

Sometimes we’ll post concept art for posters, and sometimes that art gets pulled, or doesn’t get used in favor of more bland compositions. People always wonder why, and while the answer is often complicated we’re rarely flush with all the details.

Here’s a case where we now know a lot, thanks to the artist in question. You may remember that early this year poster designs for Spike Lee‘s Oldboy hit the internet. They were great — very striking, very violent, and very strange. They were pulled, and the official art was, in the end, a lot more tame.

Here’s where it gets messy. The artist, Juan Luis Garcia, claims that he was never paid for his work. So why is Garcia writing to Spike Lee? Because this week, Lee posted some of Garcia’s designs — the ones he was never paid for — to his own FaceBook page, with a note on each saying “C 2013 Spike Lee.” Read More »